Why can’t I lose weight in menopause? So, what used to work for your body before menopause can actually start working against you once we’ve gone beyond those reproductive years. Recently I’ve also been asked if GLP-1 works or Not. So here we look at why weight gain happens after menopause, and what actually works long term.
We’re now in that new stage of life, which can be awesome and amazing. And yet, we may come up against some frustrating occurrences in our body where things that we used to do just stop working. And this is where I see so many women get stuck. They’re eating the same. They’re working out the same. And they’re trying to be more disciplined, right? That willpower. I can do this.
The thing we don’t realize is our physiology has changed. And so our body stops responding the way it used to. So I want to walk you through the five reasons why that happens and what actually works now. And that’s really what we want, right? So let’s get into it.
Why can’t I lose weight in menopause?
Reason one is muscle loss.
After menopause, we naturally lose muscle more quickly. And that is what drives our metabolism. If we lose muscle, metabolism is going to slow down. The same energy going in is not effectively, efficiently being used. So that alone is something that used to work better and has stopped working. Your body is just burning fewer calories at rest. That’s a biggie, right?
Reason number two, hormones and blood sugar.
Hormones change how your body is handling food. With lower estrogen, right, which we know is occurring, this is a biggie. Your body becomes more prone to insulin resistance and so even if you’re eating the same way your body is more likely to store fat and unfortunately fat storage happens especially around our middle. So insulin resistance, this is a biggie. It’s something that most of us experience at this stage in life and it is due to the drop in estrogen.
Reason three, eating less and more cardio.
And this is a biggie, right? This is something that maybe used to work, right? We could eat less and move more, lose the weight. Unfortunately, and I’ve spoken about this before, it is really how our body is responding to stress. Eating less is a stress on the body. More cardio can be a stress on the body. Our body goes into that sympathetic drive or that fight, flight, freeze where we’re kind of prepared for war, or something coming at us, which sometimes it feels like we’re at war with our body. And so our body is tending to go into reserve protection mode, which unfortunately means more fat storage. And so more stress on the body means more muscle loss and a slower metabolism. And so instead of seeing progress, we start to feel stuck. And this is just where it’s different. We have to do things a little differently.
Reason four, stress and recovery.
So this kind of goes back to what I was just talking about. It matters so much more. Our body is just more sensitive to stress at this stage in life, period. Just between life occurrences, sleep, and workouts, if recovery isn’t there, your body is going to hold on to weight. Again, it goes back to that preservation of life. And without that resilience that we had in our younger years, our body is going to store more fat. It is literally protecting us. It’s kind of this stage in life where we have to go, hello body, you’re okay, you can handle this.
That’s where I think of doing those things to calm our mind and our body — that recovery. Hello body, I’m okay is in doing some breathing, breath work or meditation, yoga, a walk in nature, these calming things that can restore us back to that parasympathetic state or drive and really let our body know, our brain know, we’re okay.
And that kind of leads us into our next one.
Reason five, lack of structure.
Our body and our brain really like structure — this is happening at this time, this at this time and this at this time. So that routine of when we wake up, when we go to sleep, when we eat, when we exercise, right? It creates that safety that allows our body to know everything’s okay. You can let go of what you don’t need versus holding on. And I’m talking mostly about fat that we don’t want.
And so really, it’s important. We need more intention with everything we’re doing, whether it’s eating, our sleep schedule, our workouts, and working on that resilience. It’s just more intention. I think of it like a lot of us, it’s like, oh, I don’t want to have to work so hard. And not that I’m against it, but GLP-1s can really help in setting us up for being more insulin sensitive, right? We know that can work well, especially if you’ve got a lot of weight to lose. It can certainly help get you started, but it’s not going to get necessarily to the root cause of what’s going on in our body.
So we need to really deal with these hormones in a way that gets to the root cause and teaches us and helps us to have a lifestyle. Not just a quick fix or a quick weight loss, but really learning to work with our body at this stage of life, whether you’re on a GLP-1 or not. The best menopause coaching for busy women takes into account all these reasons and builds on what actually works now.
Back to that reason number five, that lack of structure. It’s more personalization and more just adjustment in what you’re doing, especially if it’s not working, if you’re stuck. We just need to make a few adjustments to work with your physiology at this stage in life. And that’s just where most women are. They’re missing this one piece, that lack of structure. And so that’s where I can come in and help build a doable structure that works with your life today.
What works now when I can’t lose weight in menopause?
And this is what, when you’re working with a menopause health coach, this is where you want to really focus on your bio individuality, what you need based on your life and your hormones at this stage in life. It’s not about doing more. It’s about doing what works for your body now.
We focus on things like strength training, getting enough protein, supporting blood sugar, right? This helps with that insulin resistance issue where our body stores fat. So we want to reverse that, supporting blood sugar and making sure your body is actually recovering, right? Not constantly in that stress state.
Chronic stress is going to increase fat storage, especially around the middle. And that unfortunately is not just a vanity thing, but it leads to disease in our future years. And that’s what we want to prevent more than anything. It’s not extremes. It’s just about the right inputs consistently and building in consistency. That’s what we need to allow our body to know I’m safe. I’m okay. Even though all these things are shifting and changing and my body is at a very different stage in life, I’m safe. I’m okay and I can let go.
This is why I shifted to coach women at this stage in life. First of all, experiencing it myself, right? I saw so many doing everything right — they’d come in, strength train, they’re eating the same foods and yet nothing was shifting. So I had to do a deep dive into the research, get the certifications, not one, not two, but three, because I want to understand what is going on.
And so it really comes down to these five things that I just went through with you. So let’s just recap them, right?
- Muscle loss — we’ve got to keep muscle on board.
- Hormones and blood sugar. Insulin resistance is just a state of reality for most of us at this stage in life. We have to reverse that and work to become more insulin sensitive. And all that means is becoming metabolically efficient. And so working with our body at this stage in life to make sure that we are burning fat when we need to and burning carbohydrates when we need to, shifting in and out, letting the body know that we are safe. We can do this.
- Eating less, moving more doesn’t work. Period. We have to find that balance of how to eat, how to work out at this stage in life that works long term.
- Stress and recovery. This has got to be right up there because we could even be eating perfectly and yet if we are in a constant stress state, we’re not sleeping, our body is not going to respond. We are going to stay in that fight, flight, freeze state and we’re just going to store energy as fat.
- Lack of structure, working kind of haphazardly and just trying different things all the time. And what we really need is just a simple structure that we can repeat day in day out. Nothing fancy, nothing overrestrictive, but a consistency that lets our body know you’re safe.
You can let go of the weight. Bringing those stress hormones down. That’s what we’re looking for because when our stress hormones are up and activated, our body is like, I can’t lose the weight, right?
And so those are the important things that we really need to work on. Just realizing the focus is different today than it used to be. That’s all. And it’s about building strength, supporting metabolism, and creating a plan that actually fits your life.
GLP-1 or not? For losing weight after menopause?
And so if you’ve been feeling stuck or like what used to work isn’t working, you’re not doing anything wrong. It’s just that you need a new plan. Your body has changed. Your physiology is different. And so if you want help working on this and finding a way that actually works for your body at this time in your life, if you’re on a GLP-1 for weight loss, we still need to build in this structure for that long-term health and longevity, right?
I’m happy to hop on a call with you and just come up with some ideas that can help you get started or understand how to work with your body at this stage in life to feel amazing. Because this is our time. This is our chapter. So let’s embrace it. Let’s figure out how to work with your body, not against it anymore. I hope you found this helpful. I look forward to talking with you again soon.
